In fact, Evernham, considered one of the greatest crew chiefs of all-time with 47 wins and three championships with Jeff Gordon at Hendrick Motorsports from 1993-1999, has no plans to tap anyone on the shoulder or tell any crew chief how to do his job.

“I want to be the textbook, and I’m there and ready … if they turn around and ask a question,” Evernham said.

So what exactly is Evernham, whom many believe still ranks as the greatest crew chief of all time, doing back at Hendrick Motorsports 15 years after he left to run his own team?

Well, he started there just a week ago and he doesn’t have a title — “I don’t want a title — my title is ‘Don’t Give Me A Title,’” he said. He works as part of the management team and reports directly to team president and general manager Marshall Carlson, doing whatever Carlson wants him to do. That could be on the marketing side. It could be in operations. Or it could have to do with racecars.

But it’s not like Evernham is walking around with a wrench in his pocket working on racecars to check on a crew chief. He has no desire to be a crew chief at all.

“I couldn’t live in the NASCAR world today (as a crew chief),” Evenrham said. “That’s OK. This is sport is very different. It’s not like football where the rules stay the same. … The law of physics don’t change and some of the same philosophical things are where I can help.”

In other words, he might have a Vince Lombardiesqe knowledge of racing, where just like reading a book by Lombardi, crew chiefs can learn from him but shouldn’t be worried that he really wants that role again.

Evernham has an office at the shop, and he plans to spend at least three days a week there, where he doubles as the co-owner (with Rick Hendrick) of AmeriCarna Productions, which produces the AmeriCarna program he currently has on Velocity and also oversees much of the in-house Hendrick media production efforts.

“If Phil Simms is coming back to the Giants as a manager — it’s not the same as Phil Simms coming back to the Giants as a quarterback,” Evernham said. “That’s the thing we have to keep in perspective. I’m not going back as a crew chief. I’m not coming back specifically assigned to any one team to do projects.

“I’m going back to help with management, organization, communication, organization, translation — the philosophical things that never change.”

Evernham will sit in crew-chief meetings, engineering meetings, budgeting meetings and marketing meetings. His life won’t be determined by wins and losses but his contributions.

“This was an opportunity for me to spend a good part of my time around people that are going to challenge me to think,” Evernham said. “When you’re not being challenged every day to think, it’s just not good for you. … If I can add to Hendrick Motorsports in some way, I’ll be proud if they win.

“But I’ll be equally as proud if they get a new sponsor deal or if we come up with a piece for a car that they weren’t thinking about or if I inspire an idea to do something, I’ll be equally as satisfied.”

Evernham wants to help the crew chiefs manage things as their job gets so much bigger and so much more difficult.

“I am not going to help them by making their car go faster,” Evernham said. “I hope to be able to help them by giving them more time to make the car go faster.”

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the authority to get underneath the car and see what they’ve got going on.

“I will probably still ask the crew chief for permission because that is respectful whether you have the right to do that or not. … As the year goes on, I will talk, make some suggestions and ask a lot of questions and things like that,” Evernham said.

“I’m sure I am going to be under a car. Am I going to be doing any good? I don’t know.”

In just a week at Hendrick, Evernham can see a noticeable difference in just the amount of quality control and the setup process of the car, where there is little room for error to meet NASCAR’s templates, requiring an astute manufacturing process to make cars legal.

“That’s OK, I get it — it is just something that takes a little bit of personality out of the business,” Evernham said. “But that’s just the way it is. Each crew chief can’t put their ultimate signature on a car. It’s very science and manufacturing based because of the schedule and the way the cars have to be built and set up.”

One thing Evernham likely won’t be doing is being the guy who has to take the parts and pieces to NASCAR for approval.

“Could you imagine that if you said to me, ‘Look, Ray, you invented this part, you have to send it (to NASCAR) for everybody to look at, they’re going to make a drawing and in 140 days they’re going to give it to everybody else,’” Evernham said.

“I’d be like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”

While still learning his role, Evernham does have one thing he wishes he could change about Hendrick.

“I’m a jeans guy and wearing the uniform again was a little different for me,” Evernham said with a laugh. “I’ve been trying to negotiate with Mr. H if we can have a couple of jeans days. … Some days I’d rather wear flip flops, t-shirt and jeans for work.”